Workshop on the Development of a Religious Literacy Training Module for Takmirs of Mosque, Imams, and Khatibs

CSRC.OR.ID – Currently we are faced with the problem of easily disseminating Islamic narratives that contain radical understandings and ideologies and nuances of violent extremism in the community. What is more worrying is that the narrative of violent extremism and radicalism has mostly targeted millennial Muslim youth. One of the contributing factors is the lack of Islamic literature that is able to provide religious answers to various structural and social problems faced by Muslims and figures who have easy access to interactions with the younger generation. As a result, they seek answers to the above problems from reading sources that can be easily accessed on digital media and social media. Unfortunately, Islamic narratives found in digital media are generally colored by religious understandings and ideologies that tend to be radical and extremist (Postgraduate Program at UIN Sunan Kalijaga, 2018; PPIM UIN Jakarta, 2017).

Ironically, Islamic narratives with a radical style and nuances of violent extremism are also rife in mosques. The lack of supervision of Takmirs of Mosque and the minimum number of Imams / Khatibs with moderate Islamic views are believed to have contributed to the strengthening of the intolerant, radical, and even extremist narratives that were spread through the media of sermons, recitations, and Friday bulletin in mosques.

Therefore, the Takmirs, Imams, and Khatibs of the mosque who will be involved in this training program can help promote unity within Muslims, prevent violence, mediate conflicts between the community and Muslims, and furthermore, promote Islam as a religion that can calm and enlighten the surrounding community. . In program design, the training approach will be interdisciplinary, interfaith and intercultural. The aim is to strengthen the capacity building of Takmir, Imam, and Khatib as actors who can play a role in helping the dissemination of knowledge and a more moderate perspective while connecting them with every issue and contemporary discourse, whether in the context of theology, nationality, or citizenship. This includes strengthening their role as mosque managers in developing a more positive, moderate, and millennial atmosphere without neglecting the main topics surrounding the inclusion of violent extremism, especially towards Muslim youth as the group most vulnerable to being influenced.

In starting this program and in order to ensure the quality of program implementation from start to finish, CSRC UIN Jakarta has conducted a Program Design Workshop on July 3-5 2018. One of the discussions in the workshop was about the design of training modules which will be the main material in the implementation of training for Takmir mosque, Imam, and Khatib which will be held later. The next activity that has been carried out is the collection of need assessment field data in 7 training locations, namely: Banda Aceh, Palembang, Jakarta, TasikmalayaGarut, Manado, Ambon, and Mataram. This process is still in the finalization stage of the regional report, which is expected to make a relevant contribution in the formulation of training module designs for Takmirs of Mosque, imams, and khatibs.

Related to the above, as a follow-up to the Program Design and Need Assessment Workshop, CSRC UIN Jakarta will hold a Module Development Workshop on August 13-15 2018. In general, this workshop is intended to discuss in depth the findings of the need assessment and is expected to produce a training module design. , which includes the objectives, materials, and grid of the modules to be compiled, module, compilers/writers, training design and methodology, and training module preparation/writing schedule. The results of this workshop are expected to serve as a guide for the preparation of training modules and the implementation of religious literacy training for Takmirs of Mosque, imams, and khatibs.

Participants in this Module Development Workshop consist of; program management; internal CSRC UIN Jakarta; PMU CONVEY PPIM-UNDP; researchers need assessment; Takmir mosque, Imam and Khatib; minutes; and other interest groups.